A rather reduced price 75-100mm 3-4″ micrometer

[AjohnwParticipant @ajohnw51620]

My 3-4" micrometer is a bit of a mess but I had no intention of replacing it until I saw this on ebay – seller nothing to do with me etc

**LINK**

I don't know what has happened to the draper mitutoyo arrangement but they did own them and probably still do. At one point they sold some very expensive items with the draper name on them that were obviously mitutoyo. These mic's were a lot more expensive than this but they now only do 0-25 and 25-50 so suppose they are clearance.

Not a size I use that often and I don't like digital mic's anyway as they tend to be rather cumbersome to use but 75-100mm are anyway so decided to risk buying one.

John

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Edited By John W1 on 25/09/2015 17:35:05

[AjohnwParticipant @ajohnw51620]

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Looks an astonishing bargain, John

…Also available through Amazon.

MichaelG.

[Nick_GParticipant @nick_g]

.

Thanks for that John.

Not sure when I will use it but at that price I snaffled one anyway.

Cheers, Nick

[John Stevenson 1Participant @johnstevenson1]

Got one of the 0-25's but slightly different in that it's 3 buttons.

Much prefer these type to the ones with a normal scale and the digital is an add on.

Mine is in daily use and performs well. I grabbed one as well as can't go wrong at that price.

Just need a link to the 25 – 50 in the same type, got the other type.

[Nick ThorpeParticipant @nickthorpe64546]

Thanks John. One place on-line is showing a discounted price of £137.50 including VAT. I am very tempted! Nick.

[mechman48Participant @mechman48]

A nice offer; but will I use it often enough…'whether tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings & arrows…or buy one …? I could put the £30 quid to something that would get better used, more often, a very tempting offer though …

George

[egaParticipant @ega]

John W1:

Did Draper buy Mitutoyo or vice versa? In either case, can you elaborate?

John Stevenson:

Years ago I was given a Mitutoyo Combimike which I think may be your non-preferred type. I have no experience of the present type but despite the Combi's clunkiness compared to a conventional mic I do value its ablity to display both metric and imperial simultaneously and, of course, it doesn't have a battery!

[AjohnwParticipant @ajohnw51620]

I did have a Draper finger DTI set bought from RSComponents at very high cost. I sold it eventually as I prefer plunger types and expected a fair price based on what I paid for it and RS still listed it. The person who bought it reckoned Draper had bought Mitutoyo, a couple of others agreed. As they suddenly started producing expensive measurement gear that sounded right to me. Apart from the name on the dial they were identical as well even down to the fingers and fittings that came with it. It's very hard to know who own who these days. I wondered if Black & Decker had some hand in it some where or the other as they are always buying companies up and initially getting them to produce something with B&D on it. Sometimes it's just a case of some company owning a lot of the shares of another or some sort of collaboration.

I wouldn't expect a Draper mic to be equal quality wise to one from Mitutoyo though who ever made it but they have been trying with the expert range. American companies are good at borrowing a lot of money to buy others out so who knows. Some like Ford are ailing but still manage to do it.

I have a set of Mitutoyo mic's bought some time ago when most who were cost concious would have bought M&W. I much prefer Shardlow and Starret but the price was right and having bought a metric chinese lathe I wanted metric mics. At the time they were the only people fitting carbide anvils. People had started raving about them but I recently found out why they had fitted carbide anvils. They had been left in the foam lined wooden box they came in for 10+ years. The foam has degraded and the plating has come of one of the mic spindles. I'd guess if I used a file on it I would find that the spindle isn't even hardened. The Japanese have dominated several technical areas by doing this sort of thing. Looks good but doesn't last as long as the older western equivalents and are much cheaper as well.

John

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Edited By John W1 on 26/09/2015 13:41:24

[egaParticipant @ega]

John W1:

Thanks for the detailed reply. To illustrate your point about who owns what, I was surprised to learn that VW indirectly own Ducati. The name Draper rang a bell with me because I had saved some information about the firm's history and couldn't remember anything in it about Mitutoyo. Some of this info is in the relevant Wiki and there is some interesting material in the Mitutoyo ditto.

I have a slightly sentimental attachment to the products of Ambrose Shardlow as a friend gave me an unusual combination 1"/2" mic by them, essentially a 2" device with a removeable one inch long anvil. Since then I have acquired a number of other mics by the firm, mostly ex-WD.

I've never handled the new digital type and wonder what the working principle is – obviously not the same as the ubiquitous digital scale which reads a printed pattern.

[AjohnwParticipant @ajohnw51620]

Reading the Draper wiki it suggests that they chose a manufacturer for the mic's they sell. I might have misunderstood the comment bought which should have been buying items off them. To be honest I was more interested in the sale. I had assumed Draper had an American connection as well, not British.

My feeling is that Shardlow was the best which is probably why it's gone. The best always costs. I doubt if my 0-1" by them will ever wear out. It reads to 1/10,000" too and unlike many has a slightly heavier frame to cope with that.

Discounted Starrett might work out cheaper than Mitutoyo for the same basic accuracy which is where the cheaper stuff tends to fall down. In fact they usually don't state it even in the case of this Draper one. Starrett like thimble ratchets though which means that it's more difficult to apply differing pressures to flat, round and sharp corners etc. I have to buy Starrett imperial rules from the USA – why, I can read them to better than 0.005" and mm rules don't come with fine graduations.

I've no idea how digital mic's work. A clue might be the early ones that added a counter. Something similar could be done in a number of ways electronically. I find them cumbersome as the frames are generally a lot heavier to try and get them to read accurately to 1um. My feeling is that this is a step too far by a factor of 3 at least in normal use.

John

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[Ian ParkinParticipant @ianparkin39383]

I received my micrometer today

The battery that was installed was completely dead but a spare was packed and the mic works well

Its in a nice box well padded etc the setting gauge looks more suspect….not well finished

Ian

[Nick_GParticipant @nick_g]

Posted by Ian Parkin on 30/09/2015 13:10:20:

The battery that was installed was completely dead but a spare was packed and the mic works well

Ian

.

Mine arrived 10 mins ago.

Same battery issue with the one installed. But at that price I have no complaints.

I think 'some' units take a very slight drain on a battery even if the unit is switched off.!

Nick

[EugeneParticipant @eugene]

In general terms I regard the "Draper Expert" line as the lowest i'll go in terms of quality and price; even then some's better than t'others.

Mitutoyo are victims of the usual Chinese suspects; any amount of deliberate fakes and frauds are being sold labelled Mitutoyo but having no relationship to the genuine article or company.

If Mitutyo are supplying Draper with product at all, never mind cheap stuff with a poor finish I'd be very surprised.

Eug

[IanTParticipant @iant]

I'm probably a real heretic where my "metrology" kit is concerned.

Whilst I do have "good" Metric & Imperial 0-25mm/1" Mics (which I keep for 'best' use) and also some less expensive 'gardening' ones of the same size for day to day use – all of my larger ones are eBay purchases that didn't cost more than a fiver each (inc. P&P).

They are all good brands (mostly M&W) which would have cost a fair bit when new but frankly I'm unable to verify their accuracy now. However, my main use for them is to compare two (or more) distances (dovetails for instance) and I believe they are probably quite OK for this kind of work (e.g. as comparators).

Even so, they don't get used that often, so spending loads of dosh on a good set of them probably wouldn't be the best use of my pennies…

Regards,

 

IanT

 

PS They didn't look like this when I got them of course…  

Edited By IanT on 30/09/2015 20:19:47

[AjohnwParticipant @ajohnw51620]

The battery in it was dead on mine too. These things can spend years lying about in storage so that doesn't concern me at all.

A very quick check suggests that they can read size accurately to better than 0.0002" but that's too quick to be certain. It could be better or worse. The frame is more rigid than some which surprised me. All in all not bad at all really.

I suppose some will think crap, 0.0002". I'd beg to differ. It's not bad.

My usual work horses are a shardlow 0-1" and a starett 1-2" both with 0.0001" verniers that I have owned from new plus some used M&W. I also have digital that cover the same range and feel in some respects they are a waste of time and money other than being dual reading, mitutoyo's finest. These can be bought at greatly reduced cost if people are prepared to wait until they crop up. 3 point bore mic's too.

I also have a pair of 200mm 8" Mitutoyo absolute callipers. If people want accuracy these in my view are the ones to go for as the readings are meaningful but still only to +/- 0.02mm. Some are much worse.

John

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Edited By John W1 on 03/10/2015 11:32:16

[John Stevenson 1Participant @johnstevenson1]

Posted by Ian Parkin on 30/09/2015 13:10:20:

I received my micrometer today

The battery that was installed was completely dead but a spare was packed and the mic works well

Its in a nice box well padded etc the setting gauge looks more suspect….not well finished

Ian

That "setting gauge" is just a stamped out screwdriver for changing the battery

[AjohnwParticipant @ajohnw51620]

Mine came with the setting gauge and the stamped out screw driver John.

What I can say about the gauge is that it's ends and the anvils of the mic are pretty square but the gauge does look a little naff. The screw driver looks a bit M&W.

A truly lovely case. Better than Mitutoyo.

John

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